Adventure Time: Finn's Mother
by 9kodama
Summary: This is my little love note to P.W. and the folks of Adventure Time. We've met Martin, and he's such a jerk. Finn needs a cool mom, and I hope I've done that. It explains exactly why she hasn't been with him, and all that she's done to be reunited. I imagine this as a cartoon, so it's a sort of hybrid script-narrative format, forgive me for that. I hope you'll enjoy.


Opening credits roll, and as the camera pans by the dead trees, a cloaked figure walks out, lowering her arms to her sides, from the shadows of the hood it is possible to see eyes that glow blue. She is shown again in the mountain passes leading toward Marceline, and then to the far left of the grasslands, heading toward the tree house. The camera pans into the tree house, Finn and Jake bump fists, and the theme song begins, but it isn't Finn singing. It's a woman's voice, with auto-tuning:

 _Adventure time, c'mon grab your friends, we're going to very, distant lands. With this yellow dog and teenaged human the fun will never end, it's Adventure Time!_

There is a huge bone-colored moon rising up over the grassland, with a sky full of stars framing it, all casting a glow over the tree house. Everyone is sleeping. Jump to the roots of the tree, where the Dew Drops and Kent are sleeping. The camera pulls back into the tree house proper. Shelby is snoozing in a shoe, BMO is sleeping in the living room, clutching its controller, and the camera goes up to show Finn and Jake resting in their bedroom. Finn stirs. He is having a dream of floating in space, as he did at the beginning of _The Comet_ , but he isn't the one singing. It's a woman's voice.

 _Everything's falling into place…_

The camera jumps back to the grassy hillocks leading to the tree house. The shadowy figure from the credits is now visible, walking up toward the tree house.

The cloaked figure is singing the comet song, in the same auto-tune voice we heard from the opening credits. The figure seems to be a woman, by shape, but her eyes glow from the shadows.

 _…I'm right where I should be  
The tides of life all led me here  
And that's why I'm not scared_

But she continues the song as she walks toward that distant, familiar tree house.

 _My life has had its share of pain  
And I have wandered lonely  
But I have no sense of blame  
Just gratitude and glory_

Finn continues to toss and turn in his sleep. The woman reaches the tree house door just as she sings the word "glory", and Finn's eyes snap open. He bursts out of his sleeping bag and runs downstairs.

"What's up Finn?" Jake murmurs. Finn makes no response.

The cloaked woman knocks on the door, and when it opens Finn is clearly shocked by the sight of glowing eyes. She slips back the hood of her cloak, revealing a robot. The robot gives the sense of very refined technology that has been very weathered by time. There are spots of rust across her frame, and even some bits of vine growing on her, though they're withered. (Note: Intermittently throughout the episode there will be a bird's nest revealed in her mid back, under a loose panel, with a baby bird fed by a solitary parent that comes and goes.)

"Hello baby boy," she says in her auto-tune voice. "I'm your mother."

"Whaaaa?!" Finn cries.

"Finn? What's wrong?" Jake comes pounding down the stairs, raising a magically expanded fist. "Is Gunther going all goo-goo again? Because I will happily punch that freaky green brain all the way into his little fat flipper feet."

"No Jake," Finn says. "There's a robot here."

"A robot?" Jake walks up next to Finn. "Whoa. A lady bot. What're you doing here robot lady? Are you here to take our little BMO on a date?" Jake gives a chortle. "Hee, hee hee. What are you intentions with our innocent BMO?"

"Nah Jake," Finn says softly. "She's not here for BMO. She's here for me."

"What? How come?" Jake asks. "I didn't know you knew any robot ladies."

"I don't know her. She says she's my mother." Finn replies.

Jake looks from Finn to the robot and back again. "Maybe you should close the door, buddy," Jake murmurs. "Clearly this robot has a serious issue with its programming."

"Please don't close the door," the robot woman says, stepping forward. "I really am your mother. Well, I'm your mother's mind, in a robot body. I know it's weird. Don't close the door, son, I don't have much time."

"Prove it," Jake says, but Finn still just stands there, stunned.

"Jake—" He begins.

"My name is Trudeliese Mertens," The robot woman says, "But my friends call me Tru. My husband's name was—"

"Martin—" Finn injects.

"Yes," Tru agrees. "Your father."

"Anybody could know that," Jake scoffs. "This is super-fishy, Finn. Glob, may he rest in pieces, I mean peace, only knows who your dad told about you. In fact, this could just be him messing with you. Would you really put it past him?"

"Son," Tru pauses. "Finn, right? Please—"

Finn and Tru stare into each other's eyes. He hears a ghost of the woman's voice from him dream, and knows it's the same as this robot.

"I believe her, Jake," Finn says.

Jake grumbles something about Finn being young and gullible.

"There isn't much time," Tru says, "But if you'll invite me in, I can prove it, to both of you."

The scene jumps to the living room, Finn shows Tru to the curved couch behind the coffee table while Jake stomps around. The stomping wakes up BMO, who grumbles that Jake should be quieter.

"Make yourself teeny tiny at night," BMO says. "And then your big dog feet won't wake up sleepy BMO." BMO notices the others and blushes. "Oh, we have company."

"Can I take your cloak?" Finn asks. He's clearly feeling unsure, and anxious.

Tru nods and hands it to him. As she turns toward the couch we see the flap for the first time. The bird flies out, lands on her shoulder for a moment as if pecking her on the cheek with a kiss, and then flies out an open window. She sits on the sofa.

"That's not creepy or anything," Jake mutters.

"So Tru," Finn says, sitting on the other end of the couch. "You said you're running out of time?"

She nods. "But first I want to make sure you'll really hear me."

Jake harrumphs and sits on the floor.

"That you'll all hear me," she says.

"Oh I hear you lady," Jake says, "I just don't buy what you're sellin'."

"Jake!" Finn exclaims. "Stop being rude."

"Stop being a rube," Jake replies.

"I'm trustin' my gut, bro. I was dreaming about the comet, and I heard you," he tells Tru. "I trust her, Jake."

"Well I don't," Jake grumbles.

Finn sighs with annoyance.

"Please don't fight," Tru says. "There's something I want to show you, Finn, that I think will convince your friend. I was already transferring my consciousness into this construct in the weeks before my death, and so my last days of life were recorded." She pauses. "Would you like to see how you were born?"

Finn goes wide-eyed. "Yeah," he murmurs.

"Can you help me?" Tru asks BMO. "I don't have a clever screen like yours."

"BMO likes to help," it chirrups. Jake harrumphs again. "Especially if it annoys Jake after he wakes me up being a stompy baby." Finn brings BMO up to the table and Tru holds out her hand. BMO takes it, and a video begins to play on the screen.

The video is choppy and static-ridden at first, and the sound of a woman groaning, along with a vague mumbling of reassurances, can be heard. Despite himself, Jake leans in to see what is going on. As the picture clears, the camera zooms in, so that all that is visible is BMO's screen, it becomes the scene, with Tru in a voiceover. There's a dark-haired woman, clearly ill, clutching her swollen belly. She has a pair of glasses pushed back on her head, and her hair is in a ponytail. There is a thick cable running out from the back of her head and off screen. A hand rests over one of hers, but the owner of the hand isn't visible yet.

"Oh, this hurts." The young woman groans. "I mean, I read about this in books, so I knew it would, but fish flaps, this is serious."

Robot Tru's voiceover begins as young, human Tru groans again.

"Martin and I were adventurers. I was the logical tech-head, and he was the foolhardy warrior. We pulled each other's pans out of the fire many times over the years—Martin saving me when I was too distracted analyzing something or stargazing, and me saving Martin when he rushed in like a dumb. We were forever exploring new places, digging into old dungeons, making all kinds of trouble, I guess, but in the end everything turned out okay, until it didn't. We went somewhere we shouldn't have, and I ended up cursed. I never would've gone on the quest if I'd know that I was pregnant with you, I didn't find out until afterward. Doctor Princess told me I'd die within a month, but I was determined that you would be born, and that I'd be your mother. So while your father traveled Ooo finding magics and potions to extend my life, I got to working on a robot body that I could transfer my consciousness into after you were born, after I died."

"Oh," human Tru moans. She takes one hand off her belly and grips the hand. There's an exclamation of pain and Tru laughs. "You're supposed to be the tough one."

The view shifts to show a young, shaggy-haired, beardless Martin holding Tru's hand.

"It's looking at me," he murmurs to Tru.

"I'm looking at you, Thatch, my handsome man with a head like a cottage roof," Tru says, chuckling even as she grimaces again "I think he's almost here."

The video is garbled for a moment. In the static there is a groan and a cry. Martin is heard saying "Almost there, Tru." The static clears and there is a young, beardless, shaggy-haired Martin crying as he hands baby Finn to Tru. She takes baby Finn in her arms.

"Hello baby boy," she tells the crying infant, which quiets, and coos. "You're so beautiful, and I love you so much." She pauses, coughs. "It's a hard world we've brought you into," she murmurs to baby Finn, "But there's wonder to be found too. I know you'll find it." Finn coos and waves an arm, it's the one that will be a cursed grass blade someday. She looks up at Martin and smiles. "Look at him, Martin," Tru says. "Look at our magnificent son."

"I see him, and his beautiful mom too," Martin says, wiping away a tear.

Tru has grown paler; she is fading, but still holds Finn. She hums a bit, and then begins to sing:

 _Everything's falling into place,_

 _I'm right where I should be  
The tides of life all led me here  
And that's why I'm not scared_

She ends in a near whisper. "You better take him, Martin," Tru says.

"No, Tru—" Martin begins.

"I can't, I can't hold him any longer," she says faintly.

Martin takes baby Finn and the baby begins to cry.

"I love you baby, and I love you, Martin. Do what is best for our boy. Keep him safe." Tru's eyes begin to drift shut, Martin's eyes are large and watery, and he's panicked.

"What should I call him?" Martin asks. "Don't go Tru, not yet, there's so much more we need to do."

Tru's eyes flutter open, and she says: "I think," softly, but then the video cuts out again.

The camera zooms out showing static on BMO's screen. Jake and Finn both look shocked.

Jake is impressed despite himself. "Wow," Jake says. "My little gooey buddy, fresh from the womb."

Tru releases BMO's hand, and BMO cries softly. "That was so sad, Finn's robot mom," BMO sobs.

"So now you know," Tru says softly. She pats BMO gently on the back. You can still hear her human voice beneath the auto-tune vibration.

"I'm sorry I was such a rude dude," Jake says. He walks over and extends his hand to Tru. "I'm Jake, Finn's best bro and adopted brother."

"No need to apologize, Jake," Tru says, shaking his hand. "I would've thought I was some whack-job robot too, if I were you." She pauses for a moment. "Adopted brother? Did something happen to Martin?"

"Yeah he was a total jerk who dumped Finn alone in the woods when he was a baby," Jake says matter-of-factly. "Later on he ripped Finn's arm off with a spaceship, luckily it grew back."

The light of Tru's eyes dims as she hears this. "Oh Martin," she sighs.

"Jake," Finn says.

"What, it's true!"

"If you're going to be angry with anyone, be angry at me." Tru says, reaching out to lay a hand on Finn's arm." I knew your father couldn't even take care of a potted plant, I should've spent some time making arrangements to make sure he had someone to help him with you."

"I'm not angry at him," Finn says. "Not anymore. The catalyst comet helped me understand him."

"Catalyst comet?" Tru's eyes widen. "I wish I had time for that story."

"You don't?" Finn asks.

"No," Tru says sadly. "But I can explain."

"Can you explain where you've been the past sixteen years?" Finn asks quietly. "You said you knew Martin couldn't take care of me. Why didn't you?"

"Explaining that explains everything," Tru replies.

"BMO, maybe you and I should go upstairs and snack on chips," Jake says, clearly not wanting to be in the middle of their talk.

"I'm not hungry, Jake," BMO says, staring between Finn and Tru. "Besides, things are finally getting good with Finn and his robot mom."

"Learn to take a hint, BMO," Jake says, stretching to lift the little computer, which he places under his arm.

"Learn not to put people in your armpit," BMO says in a muffled voice.

"We'll be upstairs if you need us," Jake tells Finn.

"Thanks, man."

They both watch Jake, with a struggling BMO under his arm, stretch away upstairs.

"He's pretty neat, huh?" Tru asks.

"Yeah," says Finn.

"Well," Tru continues after a moment, "I promised you an explanation. The robot body that I've built to house my consciousness requires an incredible amount of power. The only battery that could be salvaged from the ship you were born on is delicate, charged by solar radiation through the palm of my hands. It takes nearly 146,000 days to charge my battery enough to run for fifteen years." She pauses. "I'm running on empty."

"That's like 400 years," Finn says. "I'm only sixteen."

"You mean you've aged sixteen years since the time capsule."

"The what now?"

Flashback. Tru's human body is dead. Martin, holding baby Finn, leads the robot outside. Tru's robot body is murmuring "Booting, booting". Once they get outside it raises its arms, palms pointed up toward the light. Blue circles in each palm pulse and glow. Martin carries baby Finn back to the ship. In the hold, a very young, green Banana Man is standing next to a circular pod.

"Are you sure you want to do this, friend?"

Martin nods. "The baby and I will wait for her. In 400 years this bad boy will spring open and we can all be together again."

"Have it your way," Banana Man says. Martin and baby Finn step inside the capsule and Banana Man hits a few buttons, sealing them in. They both freeze in place.

"So I really was born on a ship?" Finn asks, clearly surprised. "Martin said I was born on a ship at sea, with all kinds of sea creatures attacking. He said there was a tiger too."

"Oh that Martin," Tru says, shaking her head. The bird flies back inside with a seedpod in its beak. It circles over her head. "Could you lift my back flap so my friend can go home?" She asks Finn.

"Sure," Finn says. When he lifts the flap a nest with a little baby bird is revealed. The bluebird flies in, and Finn watches as it gets fed, but then let's the flap draw shut.

"A boat at sea," Tru says, shaking her head again. We were in our friend the Banana Man's spaceship, though it wasn't anywhere near done at the time."

"Then why did he," Finn begins.

"The sea creatures and tiger were metaphors for death, Finn, coming for me, the tumultuous sea a symbol of the unknown. Your father always was a poetic old schemer." Tru shakes her head.

"I wonder why Martin and I got out of the time capsule early," Finn says.

"I wonder too, but I'm glad you did. It seems like you've had a happy life, Finn."

Finn nods. "But what about you?

 _Flashback. There's a quick stop motion showing how Tru becomes weathered, vine-covered, lives through rain, sun, baking heat, snows, as her power meter slowly climbs. There are cameo flashes of favorite characters—Marceline, Lumpy Space Princess, the Ice King, moving past her, Marceline even giving her a poke. At some point the pod beside her becomes empty. Shortly thereafter the meter is full and Tru awakens. She is disoriented at first, looking at her hands. Then her head snaps up and she sees the empty pod. She runs to it, calling to Martin. She looks around a bit, and then it jumps to her, cloaked, marching across the landscape of Ooo, looking for Martin and for their son. She is shown in all times of day, all types of weather, different landscapes, and interacting with different denizens of Ooo. Finally you see her talking to the tiny race of people that Martin once subjugated to his own ends. Several of them are nodding, and point her off toward the grasslands. In the end, at night, the opening repeats with her singing and walking up to Finn's door at the Treehouse._

"Wow," Finn says.

"It's been an amazing journey," Tru agrees, nodding. "But it took me so long to find you, Finn. My batteries are running low."

"So you're going to go back to sleep, for four hundred years?" Finn speaks softly, staring at the floor clearly dismayed.

"That's the long and the short of it."

Finn begins to shake his fists clenched. "No!" He cries. "You just found me. I don't accept that we have to lose each other again."

"Finn," Tru begins.

Jake and BMO have appeared, watching their exchange.

"I've got a friend who can help you, Tru," Finn says, "I'm sure of it. I'm going to go and get her now, I won't be gone long." He heads toward the door.

"I wish you'd stay," Tru says. "There's so much for us to talk about."

"You should listen to her, buddy," Jake says. "Don't bum out your robot mom."

"It won't take long, I promise." Finn take's Tru's hand and continues. "It's going to be okay." Finn runs out into the night.

"He's a brash one, isn't he?" Tru asks Jake.

"He means well," Jake tells her.

"Still, he should listen to his robot mom," BMO exclaims.

"That's all right," Tru says. "He comes by it honestly. Will you tell me about him, Jake? About my baby boy?"

"Anything you want to know, robot mom," Jake says, and sits next to her on the couch.

There's a time jump. We cut to Finn throwing open the door. Tru, Jake, and BMO were sitting around, laughing. Jake and BMO both have cups of tea; BMO is wearing it, of course.

"We're here!" Finn cries, and Bubblegum follows after. "PB, Tru," Finn says in a rush. "Tru, PB, I mean Princess Bubblegum, of the Candy Kingdom. Hurry PB," Finn tells her. "You've gotta check her out."

We cut to Tru, lying on a table, several of her compartments open, chest and head. Bubblegum is wearing magnifying lenses, peering and poking at Tru. After a moment she stops and pushes the glasses back on her head.

"Thank you, Tru," Bubblegum says. "You can close your ports now."

"So?" Finn asks.

"Let me talk to you, Finn," Bubblegum replies. She takes him outside, closing the door behind them. "This isn't going to work, Finn," she says.

"What do you mean? You're an amazing scientist. Can't you just, swap out her battery or something?"

"That's what I was hoping, Finn," Bubblegum says. "But Tru's memory is directly linked to a really fragile solar charging system. If I swap out that battery—and that's if I can even find one compatible—there's a huge risk that we'll erase your mom, and just be left with a lifeless robot."

"No," Tru says, she's opened the door behind them. "I won't take that chance."

"But, if your battery runs out we'll never see each other again," Finn says.

"But I'll remember you, and you'll remember me," Tru says, she lays a hand on Finn's shoulder. "If my memory is lost, I'll really be dead. I don't want to forget you, Finn."

"I understand," Finn says, hanging his head.

"I'm sorry," PB says. "I wish there was something more I could do."

"Thank you for trying," Tru and Finn say simultaneously. They smile at each other sadly.

PB leaves. Finn, Tru, and Jake are left together, alone, in the living room.

"I'm sorry, Finn," Tru says.

"Me too."

"Is there anything you want to ask me?" Tru asks, "That you want to know before…before I go back to sleep?"

Finn taps his chin, thinking. "Well, uh, Tru," he says after a pause, clearly debating calling her "mom", "I guess. Well, what were you going to name me?"

"I like the name Finn," she replies.

"That's the one my parents gave him," Jake says. "Of course at the time it's because they thought he was a mudfish."

"My little mudfish," Tru murmurs. Her construct moves in a stylized smile.

"It was probably the hat," Finn says rubbing his hand over his white hat.

"Let's go and watch the stars, Finn," Tru says suddenly. "I'd like to see the constellations, it's been a long time since I just looked up." She stands with the sleeping BMO and they head outside.

"This is depressing," Jake says softly as they exit. "I like robot mom."

Finn and Tru stand in silence, holding hands, watching the stars wheel overhead. Tru's battery has gotten very low. Finally, her arm holding BMO begins to weaken.

"You better take BMO, Finn," Tru says, she holds out the little robot toward her son. Her voice has become slower, deeper, her eyes dimming. BMO wakes up, sees Tru's dimmed glow.

"Oh no," BMO says softly.

"Don't go, Mom," Finn pleads, taking BMO and setting the little robot on the ground. BMO runs back toward the house, crying. "Not yet. There's so much more I want to know."

"I wish I didn't have to," Tru replies, her arms are moving slowly upwards, revealing the solar power cells built into the palms. "I only have moments left now. There's time to tell you one more thing."

Finn pauses, and then leans close to Tru, whispering into her ear. Tru smiles.

"Of course." She turns her head and looks at Finn. "I love you, son."

Before Finn can reply, Tru's head drops as her battery runs out.

"Goodbye…Mom," Finn says. "Have a good sleep." Finn sits down by his mother's feet and begins to sing.

 _Don't be weepy, sleepy puppies._

 _Slip your slippers on your footies._

 _In the morning you'll get goodies;_

 _Puppy hats and puppy hoodies._

 _No stripes or polk-a-dots_

 _Heather gray and feather soft,_

 _Baby pink or baby blue…  
All the drawstrings you can chew…_

Finn takes off his mother's cloak as he sings, and the bird flies around them. As the song continues, suddenly we're watching the rest of the clip from Finn's birth.

"I think," young human Tru says, and begins to cry. "I think it would be wrong for me to name him, darling. Someone else will get to be his mother, and she should get to name him. He'll be hers, not mine, no matter how much I love him."

"Oh Tru," Martin says sadly.

"Tell him I loved him—"

The video stops. In the end, she's left standing behind the tree house with her arms thrown up, her battery slowly charging, with flowers growing up her legs. Finn can be seen sitting by her feet, reading a book.

 _Roll credits._


End file.
